Book Reviews


 This was caucus revolutionary politics with a
 vengeance; so much so that not the least shock
 that the Grenadian people received in October
 1983 was suddenly to discover that they had
 been governed by a Central Committee which they
 had never heard of before.

Bishop had avoided a showdown with the Central Committee
on the proposed joint leadership--Coard as party chief
and Bishop as popular spokesman/leader--issue, had
played his role in the development of "the science,"
had "confessed" in Stalinist fashion, although perhaps
only to try to stall, and when at last the people were
called out--now to save Bishop as well as the Revolution--
it was probably already too late. The Coard faction had
the army and the guns, and they used them.

 Lewis then documents the devious political path
followed by Eastern Caribbean leaders--especially Adams,
Charles, and Compton--and Jamaica's Seaga after the
19 October murder of Bishop and the establishment of
military rule. Regional bodies were not fully appraised
of their communications with Washington, and while
CARICOM leaders met and recommended a Caribbean solution
that would exclude U. S. intervention, plans for the
invasion were already underway in Barbados. Dominica
Prime Minister Eugenia Charles made a joint television
appearance with President Ronald Reagan on 25 October
1983, and they gave a highly selective version of the
"facts" of an emergency rescue mission that had been
weeks in preparation and needed only the slightest
provocation to launch. Afterwards, there was much
recrimination, name-calling, and recanting among
Caribbean leaders, but it was too late.

 Given the size and population of Grenada, the United
States mounted an incredible amount of firepower to
overcome a comparatively small and poorly equipped force.
The result was a kind of tragi-comedy, a deadly,
Caribbean catch-22:

 . .hundreds of U. S. soldiers milling around
 not knowing what to do. . .Stories of marines
 . .equipped only with tourist maps, not
 knowing for several days whether the PRA [People's